Latest Fieldnotes

The Dolmen de Kerlutu sits at the edge of a track near Belz, just to the northwest of Erdeven. The dolmen appears to have had some kind of restoration at sometime, as there is some fairly ‘new’ looking drystone walling inside.
There is no evidence of a passage remaining here. The chamber though is set in a low mound, which reaches the tops of the uprights but does not encroach on the outsize capstone.
And what a capstone, almost inappropriately large for the chamber it covers; it is supported by drystone walling and three of the four megalithic orthostats.
One can imagine that these five stones were at one time all that remained at Kerlutu. And a splendid denuded dolmen it would have been. The restoration, that I am guessing replaced the walls and mound, created a rather odd dolmen/tumulus hybrid, which is nonetheless still impressive.

18:06:03

At the side of the road, in the hamlet of Kerguérhen near Belz sits the Dolmen de Er Roc’h. This is more like the Carnac dolmens I’m used too. It is a mid-period passage grave with some differentiation between the passage and the chamber. A smallish and understated dolmen it is today half covered by ivy, and even the floor inside is carpeted with the voracious climber.
These are the unpretentious, unimposing dolmens that one finds all over this area. These are not such monsters as the Grand Tumuli, which would draw pilgrims from miles around, but the small family tombs serving the outlying communities of the Carnac area. Almost like the domestic shrines found in the homes of Hindus.
But still I must visit for that is my mission, and in order to get the whole picture one must see all the pixels…

18/06/03ce

These two dolmens at the summit of a natural hill over looking some of the islands that lie in the Riviere d’Etel, the Ile de Niheu, Ile de Reic’h, Ile des Moines and the Ile du Petit Niheu.
Of the two the northern most is more complete, having, it seems, all it’s uprights and two capstones, including a rippling weetabix that covers the chamber. The second as faired less well and only the low stones of the chamber and a few uprights of the passage remain. It seems unlikely that this second dolmen ever had capstones, it being more likely to have had a corbelled chamber instead, the uprights are two low, I feel, to directly support a capstone. This dolmen is also surrounded by the remains of a low mound.
From this evidence and also from looking at the way the chambers are differentiated from the passages I would guess that the hatless dolmen is the earlier of the two as it’s chamber is somewhat more clearly defined as being separate from the passage.
The location of two dolmens from different time periods atop this same hill does then point to its importance as a sacred area. The river valley would not have been so flooded as it is now so maybe those islands were similar hills which were addressed by the dolmens here.
I’m now going to try and find a dolmen which my guidebook describes as being ‘completely invaded by vegetation’, I have not high hopes for finding it.

18:06:03

I have managed to find the Dolmen de Sept Saints. Almost as hard to find as Kerluir, this again involved some bramble trampling, gorse avoiding action.
The book I’m using now says this is in a sad state, and since the photo therein was taken it’s got worse. The dolmen is completely overgrown, one can just see the stones of the passage and the capstone peering through the vegetation but the situation will only get worse here.
A fairly long passage, that is now uncovered, leads to a very low chamber covered by a capstone. It could be that the chamber was originally deep but has been filled in through time.
I’m going to go now because something large and alive is in these woods and scaring me!
Later:
As I fought my way out of the woods I was walking along what I believed to be an overgrown path, however it seems that it may well have been the capstones of the chambers of a second dolmen, totally overwhelmed by the foliage.

Map co-ordinates are probably right, I hope, but it was difficult to spot for sure in aerial photos. Should be easy to find anyway if you know it’s around there, as we just spotted it while passing!

Access: Short walk down fairly rough field-edge ‘verge’.

For directions, see Mols/Porskær Stenhus. Continue east along this road, keeping a watch out to the left (NW) as you go up the hill.

Visited 4 April 2006
Made up name, as I’ve not been able to find out anything at all about this barrow.

Not spectacular by any means, but worth a look for the chunky capstone alone. A nice surprise, especially considering we nearly didn’t go and look!

St Uzec menhir is just bizarre and thanks to the Christians, its ancient power now seems to glow more strongly. Some zealous twat in the 16th century decided to attempt to mute its pagan power by carving a crucifix on the top. All it does, however, is to make Christianity seem like a fly-by-night and pathetically bullying force. Still, the menhir is beautiful, striking and much larger than I had imagined at more than 8ms tall! I wonder how tall it was before the Christians got their dirty hands on it?

Over on the touristy island of Ile Grande, which you can drive over a causeway to, is this allée couverte which is rather pleasant being neither small or big, long nor short. Just yer average local allée couverte for local people. With it teeming with rain and completely free of any tourists, the best place to be was inside it. Me, allée couvertes, rats, drainpipes.

Featured in The Megalithic European (TME) page 161.

Access: Bit of a walk from the carpark – perhaps a few hundred metres along a decent path, down into a reasonably steep little valley, across a wooden bridge and up the other side.

In Djursland, NE of Århus.

We went here from Mols (or Porskær Stenhus, as it’s more often known). It’s a bit of a winding wander through minor roads, but very rewarding, as there are a few other minor (but cool) sites to search out on the way. The first few of these are spottable if you contininue on the road past Porskær Stenhus.

I’ll try to describe this way, as the route directly from the E45 is pretty simple until you join our route anyway! (Junction 42 onto the 16 east, which becomes the 21. Left onto the 547 and then right to Tustrup village before you reach Fjellerup. Then 0.5km before Tustrup village, turn right (west). The carpark is on the left about 1.5km-2km along this road.

So, from Porskær Stenhus we coninued east along the same road towards Agri. Within a couple of km at most, we noticed a wrecked barrow to the left in a scrubby bit of a field boundary – which I’ve called Porskærvej un-named.

We went straight through Agri (pretty place), and after about half a km, the barrows of Stabelhøje are unmissable on the left. At some point around here, we also saw a couple of wrecked barrows I’ve yet to identify, but you won’t miss them as they were right next to the road. We continued on towards Tåstrup (not Tustrup!!!).

From Tåstrup it gets difficult to remember for sure exactly the way we navigated the maze of minor roads, which is a shame because we saw a really nice dolmen (to be identified) on the right of one of the little lanes.

Given that, I’ll just say that we headed for Kolind, Koed, Nimtofte and then Tustrup. Just over 0.5km north of Tustrup, there is a crossroads – turn west here. The carpark for the site is about 1.5km-2km along on the left with a sign.

Visited 4 April 2006
Good map (& probably info boards if we could have read them) in the carpark to whet the megalithic appetite. A short walk crossing a pretty stream and then – a small megalithic showroom!!

We were blessed with the weather again and were able to spend a goodly time wandering here and getting our heads round this place. Another spellbinder.

Visited 4 April 2006
Essentially a dolmen – probably a passage grave – without a capstone. Still very impressive, as the remaining slabs are very substantial chunks of stone!

Just after you have driven over the causeway on the way back from Ile Grande is Prajou allée couverte which is much longer than Ile Grande allée couverte.

We were intrigued by the carvings on the inside of the end chamber which was cut off by a blocking stone. Moth crawled in for a better look. Two pairs of carved semi-hemispheres and a couple of long lines with dots running parallel have been interpreted as pairs of breasts by ‘experts’ – probably men – but I asked, could they not be testicles or even eyes? We were to keep seeing these odd carvings on stones all over Brittany…

Visited 4 April 2006
An impressive passage grave with mound pretty much intact, but one of the (I think) 5 capstones is missing from its 10m chamber.

The passage is short, but has no capstones, making it fairly easy to get into, though the chamber itself is fairly low – you have to squat when under the capstones.

We noticed this little chambered tomb at the roadside near Keryvon, we hadn’t been expecting it so it was nice little bonus site! Aubrey Burl calls it ‘unimpressive’ but I give it full marks for simply surviving, sandwiched as it is at the roadside before the land dips away onto the beach. The end of it is practically falling away onto the beach! Only one capstone remains up but I liked it a lot.

There are two monuments in the same field at Kerguntuil and they proved harder to find than I thought due to sh*tty, ambiguous roadsigns and an inadequately scaled map. I got very cross. Finally, as we located them, a pair of jays swooped down in front of us.

Kerguntuil dolmen is less of a dolmen and more of a large stone room at the roadside.

It was so tall inside that I could only just reach up and touch the *whopping* capstone. It has been shored up with walling on one side for stability. You get the impression it has been used for centuries as an animal shelter. Well, wouldn’t you? On the other side of the field, crouching now as part of a field wall is the Kerguntuil allée couverte.

On the other side of the field from Kerguntuil dolmen crouching now as part of a field wall is the Kerguntuil allée couverte. It’s an average sized allée couverte and like so many round here has strange carved semi hemispheres on one of its wall slabs. Here, there are six pairs of them, on this occasion each pair has a smiley curve below them. Moth read them as pairs of breasts with pregnant bellies below. We read somewhere that they were pairs of breasts with necklaces. But, I ask you, have you ever seen a woman wear a necklace below her cherry-muffins? No. Me neither. Perhaps they did all those years ago and I’m being terribly naive. Anyway, this is a cracker over 9ms long and well worth seeking out.

Visited 4 April 2006
Hmmm. Thought this one looked interesting in The Megalithic European & it is an odd one – to me at least.

Always assuming the restoration is accurate (& I have no reason to think otherwise) I’ve not really seen anything like the way it is constructed before, with the whole relatively small mound surrounded by such a tall revetment wall.

The construction of the wall itself reminded me of part of Wayland’s Smithy’s frontage. The construction as a whole, though, faintly reminded me of a ‘compressed’ version of The Great Tomb on Porth Hellick Down in the Isles of Scilly (though the construction of the revetment is different there, being ‘straightforward’ drystone wall).

I couldn’t help wondering if the whole thing was originally covered by a larger mound – but then I guess the excavations would have discovered that.

Visited 4 April 2006
Possibly the most unusual part of the complex, and as a result, particularly interesting. Unfortunately, it’s also the one that is least complete – largely because much of it was made of wood that was burnt down. The diagrams on the info board help though!

Apparently, the walls were a metre thick. In the centre was an oval pit with clean sand in it and at each ‘side’ were fairly sizeable collections of middle-neolithic pottery.

Featured in The Megalithic European (TME) page 168.

Access: It is just about possible to park on the farm track that crosses the field past the monument. Then a walk of around 100m across the field which was ploughed when we were there. If the field is in crop, you may not be able to get to the dolmen.

Bjerrebygaard is on Langeland. Cross the bridge to Langeland and travel just over 2.5km along the 9. Take a left turn (north) onto the 305 towards Tullebølle, Tranekær and Lohals.

The dolmen is just over 1.5km along this road on the left (west) clearly visible with 6 large trees on its mound, just before a wood.

Visited 5 April 2006
This was the first place we visited on Langeland, which turned out to be a veritable megalithic wonderland, the highlight of our trip & a wonderful birthday present for me!

It’s a shame Julian wasn’t able to cover the island’s monuments in more detail – there were so many interesting or attractive sites that we came back 2 days later to investigate more!

This is a beautiful chunky ‘double dolmen’, set on a largish mound. It’s a little knocked about and according to James Dyer in Discovering Archaeology in Denmark was originally a long barrow (or langdysse).

There are 2 chambers which are basically in good condition though one of the capstones has slipped down at the end where it meets the other chamber and is now wedged at an angle.

A couple of stones at the SE end suggest a passage and there are several other large stones on the mound (mostly to the west) some of which I’d assume may be (or have been) kerbstones and maybe, passage stones.

Dyer mentions 3 stones of another passage to the NW chamber, but I couldn’t really see what he means – though they may have been moved since his visit, as the book was punished in 1972....

Featured in The Megalithic European (TME) page 162-3.

Access: Up a farm track, maybe about 400m. When I was there, it was extremely muddy & slippery!

In the far north of Denmark, fairly near Aalbog. Take the 11/29 between Aalborg in the east and Thisted in the west, heading for Fjerritslev.

At Fjerritslev, take the 29 south for about 3km, then take a left towards Husby. After 3km, turn right onto Gundestrupvej and after less than 500m, you should see a signpost for the monument.

Visited 6 April 2006
There are actually 3 ‘højs’ (or runndysse) here, 2 with mounds (and no accessible entrance) and one which has basically been stripped down to the passage & chamber on a low platform.

The 2 ‘complete’ barrows are pretty run-of-the-mill, for Denmark – that means they’re impressive mounds!!! But without being able to get inside, there is of course no way to see any of the megalithic ‘skeleton’, leaving fairly featureless mounds that perhaps have limited interest.

On the tomb that has been stripped, I have to admit that this is one of the few TME places in Denmark that disappointed me a bit. It didn’t help that it was a dull drab day & it had been raining mostly steadily (but often hard!) all day.

And it certainly didn’t help that the barrow had been burnt clear of vegetation, making it look stark, cold and ‘messy’ on its island in a ploughed field – which also made photographing difficult from many angles.

Please note that, unusually, Julian has made a mistake about this site in TME, concerning the Gundestrup Cauldron. It was actually found at another place called Gundestrup, about 30km further south, near Aars (on the 29 from here). This is backed up by James Dyer’s Discovering Archaeology in Denmark. I believe there is nothing to see at the place where it was found.

And opinion seems divided as to where the cauldron is now! Different sources say it’s in the National Museum in Copenhagen, Århus Museum or even Aars Museum! I tried to check online & the National Museum’s website ‘seems’ to say they have it, but the collection’s being revamped & is not open until May 2008!

Featured in The Megalithic European (TME) page 168.

Access: Carpark is close to monument, a walk of about 40m along the road.

Hesselbjerg is on Langeland. From the 9, at the eastern edge of Rudkøbbing take the 305 south for about 14km. At the south end of the village of Humble (see also Kong Humble’s Grav) take a right (west) onto Ristingevej.

Follow this road to Hesselbjerg, taking a left (SE) in the village, onto Nørreballevej. The langdysse is around 250m along on the right (south).

Visited 5 April 2006
Ve-ery nice! This is a fine langdysse. Somehow I’d missed it out when planning the trip, even though it’s featured in TME. I blame the sheer number of monuments all over Langeland!

Curiously, it’s also curiously missng from Oldtidsminder På Langeland, a wonderful little book (unfortunately not available in English) that we picked up at the tourist info office. Luckily, while we were in the area, I just happened to notice it on the map & thought we’d might as well visit.

Beautiful and prominent kerbstones line its long sides, though its chamber is unimpressive, and agriculture (and an information board) give it no elbow-room.

Its setting is very pretty, being in a nature reserve, very close to a lake which teems with wildlife. As the sinking sun turned the light yellow & the shadows deepened, I was very glad we’d not missed it!

Mentioned in passing in The Megalithic European (TME) on page 168.

Access: The carpark that we found is about 200-300m from the monument, a walk across gently undulating fields. Unfortunately, the fields were in crop so we couldn’t reach the monument.

The Langdysse i Ormstrup is on Langeland, and easy to find from Jaettestuekammer ved Kinderballe. Simply continue on the road south for a little over 0.5km, looking out for the road west to Ormstrup (called Tre Hoje but I can’t remember if there’s a sign).

Take this road – the parking and path to the langdysse are at the 2nd farm on the left, around 500m along.

Visited 5 April 2006
Looks like an absolute corker but we couldn’t get close as its field was in crop. We thought about walking down the ‘tramlines’ left by tractors, but without being able to speak Danish, we wimped out. Gah!

It’s possible you may also be able to reach the site from the next road to the south, maybe even when it’s in crop, but we didn’t have time to investigate.

Mentioned in The Megalithic European (TME) page 159, but this is not the main site that Julian talks about. That is Snibhøj. And when he refers to Snibhøj, he is actually referring to this monument!.

Access: See Snibhøj. From there, head back down to the village of Hannerup, but instead of going back the way you came through the village, turn right towards Snæbum (onto Snæbumvej).

If you’ve seen it from Snibhøj you won’t have trouble spotting the monument on the right (north) side of this road, just after a large farm on the left (south).

Visited 4 April 2006
There is no access to Spanskhøj from Snibhøj (well, there wasn’t when we went), so we thought we’d take a closer look from the nearest road and see if you could visit that way.

To be honest, it was pretty clear that the landowners didn’t want you to, and knowing that the passages have metal gates that were likely to be locked, we didn’t risk trying to sneak in under the noses of the busy neighbouring farms. We didn’t have time to ask, as it was getting late and we had a long way to go to get back to our base near Middlefart on the Isle of Fyn.

From the road, it’s pretty clear that Spanskhøj is like a very slightly smaller version of Snibhøj. And from the top of Snibhøj, it is clear that Spanskhøj has the same unusual layout – 2 passages to 2 separate chambers alongside each other (as does the wrecked tomb next to Snibhøj). Obviously not so ‘unusual’ around here!

Access: Visible and reached from tiny farm road near Petersgård. Walk of maybe 100 metres gently uphill across field. May not be accessible if field is in crop.

Confusingly, some maps only seem to show Løkkeby as being at the coast, while others show a small village close to Tullbølle as being Løkkeby.

The Langdysse ved Løkkeby is easy to reach from Bjerrebygaard. Continue north on the 305 to Tullbølle. A short way into the village, take a right (Skebjergvej), probably signposted to Løkkeby. At the end of this short road, take a right. Follow this road for a very short distance and take a left (this is Nordre Løkkebyvej, but I can’t remember if it had a sign to tell you that).

Continue for around 0.5km, then turn right (Løkkeby Srandvej) and follow this small road to bear right towards a farm on the right. The langdysse is a little way past on the right with trees growing from its mound. There is a space in the trees opposite where you can stop.

Visited 5 April 2006
Unfortunately we arrived at the langdysse with very little time to spare and in the middle of a heavy hailstorm. One of those where the hailstones actually ‘lay’, like snow.

Langeland Museum’s Oldtidsminder På Langeland calls the monument “Langeland’s smukkeste fortidsminder” (which as far as I can tell means ‘most beautiful’).

It’s nice but I don’t think I’d go that far – even allowing for the filthy weather and rushed visit! It reminded me a little of East Kennett longbarrow with far fewer trees. The weather was such that I couldn’t get any decent shots from further away to show its setting or even the whole monument.

We waited a few minutes & the hail abated somewhat, so I hurried across the field to the barrow. Like quite a few langdysse, the kerbstones are, curiously, partway up the mound. The capstone of the single chamber is exposed on the top of the mound and from what little I could see (and remember) from my rushed examination, the chamber looks like it is filled with earth.

Access: Pleasant walk around 0.5km along pretty good but undulating coastal path.

Easy to reach from Hesselbjerg landysse. Head into Hesselbjerg village and take a left, then almost immediately follow the road round to the right towards Nyby and Ristinge. After about 2km, the road swings right and goes on to enter Ristinge. around 400 metres later the road forks – take the left and follow it to the end by the sea and park.

The road becomes a path which goes along a little back from the beach and then the ‘cliff-edge’. as the path zig-zags along, look out for a path to the right, inland. This will take you to the dolmen.

Visited 5 April 2006
Gorgeous.

Even though there was no picture, the moment I saw the map on the Visit Denmark website showing this one’s setting I knew I wanted to try to find it! I thought it might be difficult, but in the end it was easy and sooooo worthwhile.

I expected a small pile of rocks & got Chûn quoit with a 240 degree sea-view!

So far I’ve not been able to find any information at all on the ‘dyssekammer’ in English. It’ll just have to be enough to enjoy its beauty, which suits me.

Access: Small carpark very close to monument. Short uphill walk of maybe 20 metres on grass.

Hulbjerg-jættestuen is in the far south of Langeland, but pretty easy to reach from Kong Humble’s Grav. From there, continue south on the 305 towards Bagenkop. About 1km before it reaches Bagenkop, the 305 swings right (west), just past Søndenbro. As the road bends right, there is a smallish road off to the left (in a way, straight on) towards Gulstav & Dovnsklint. Take this (Gustalvej) and at the next junction (almost immediately) continue south.

Keep on this road for just about 1.5km and as the road kinks right, look out for a turning to left called Keldsnorvej. You don’t want this, this turning, but take the next right onto Søgardsvej (may be signposted to Bagenkop). As you approach, you should be able to see the monument ahead to the right on the hillside. There is a small car park on the right as you reach the monument.

Visited 5 April 2006
The word jættestuen or jættestue seem to just be used as an umbrella term. Other monuments similar to this are called runddysser (the ‘r’ seems to make it plural) or højs....

Beautifully cared for, this is an imposing and very complete barrow, which has a huge ‘pre-mound’ – presumably natural. If not, it’s a spectacular feat. Although I can’t read Danish, Oldtidsminder På Langeland seems to say it was restored in 1960-61.

The passage is a bit of a squeeze, but the chamber is pretty impressive once inside.

Access: In a field a few metres from a small road to Herslev, around 50 metres from junction with 305.

Near Herslev on Langeland. From the 9, at the eastern edge of Rudkøbbing take the 305 south for about 6km. Look out for a small road to the left (east) towards Herslev itself and Illebølle. The dolmen is on your right almost immediately, and we were able to pull in without obstructing the narrow road.

Visited 5 April 2006
A lovely dolmen more-or-less right next to the 305. And if I remember correctly, there is a factory with big chimneys ‘behind’ it, luckily not close enough to be too distracting. (In fact if I am right, I managed to ‘hide’ it behind the monument in all my photos!)